Getting psyched up for what?

Even a short while ago, people spoke without embarrassment or affectation about their souls. Some remnants of their speech survive in expressions that are still quite common : Bless my soul : there wasn’t a soul to be seen : soul music : the soul of *****, and so on. But, to what extent is the soul still believed in? To what extent do we nowadays believe that there is a part of us that is not a material thing but a spiritual one? A non-material entity ; the opposite, as it were, to the material body. There are lots of ways of putting it without getting too technical.

When we say something like, “I have arms,” we must ask, Who is this “I”? Or, when we say, “He has strong feelings,” we must ask, Who is this “he”? do we refer merely to the body? or to something else which is the essential person?

When we use those remnants of the older speech, such as Bless my soul, are we using the word soul with its original meaning? or as a metaphor which simply means the body? These are important questions, for the answers will have momentous practical consequences for all of us.

If we use the word soul to indicate some property or quality we possess that is not a material thing, then we open the possibility that there is a part of us that will never die. On the other hand, if we are purely material beings, then we are no more than perishable machines. And biological machines are, in principle, no different from the kinds of machines that we manufacture – cars, aeroplanes, and so on.

And, if we are just machines, is there any reason why we ought to value ourselves any more than we value any other animal? – or any car or aeroplane?